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I want to ask a favour. It’s a big one and I will be so grateful if you can help, even if it’s just by sharing this post. ♥ Be a pal of mine and buy a handmade latte valentine for $5. My friend Tiff will receive $4 (80% of the proceeds) from the sale of each latte card purchased by February 8th. ♥

Firstly, if we are buds – PLEASE order from me directly and arrange pick-up to offset the cost of processing online payments. Alternatively, I’ve set up a little online shop with local pick-up available, or shipping within Canada at a rate of $1.25 per card plus $0.25 for each additional card added to the same order.

If you don’t need a latte card and would simply prefer to donate directly to the cause, please visit Tiff’s Go Fund Me page. Any amount will help, even $4. Sharing this post totally counts as a contribution, so please help get the word out. ♥

Just dropped off a lovely big order at Posie Row – the ladies are so good to me there, they have never turned down a single card design I’ve sprung on them. I printed my potty-mouth Father’s Day card again this year but I printed the curse word in cursive script so children will have a harder time reading it. I designed that card for us older kids who know that our dads are simultaneously awesome and totally badass. Here’s my best tip when picking out a card: know your audience!

Can we chat for a minute about the taco selection? 15 entries and only one chicken taco & only one veggie taco (both from Fixed!) Could really use a scattered bean taco, am I right? I shouldn’t complain because there are a lot of tacos and this challenge will help spread taco awareness.

I’ve always felt that every restaurant should have tacos on the menu as an appetizer option – I’m sure that the popularity of this challenge will prove me right.

Unrelated to the taco challenge, but very much related to tacos… I was pretty ambivalent about Quintana’s (in Churchill Square) before they introduced their new BBQ Chicken Tacos last year (part of the Q’s Trio). They’re sweet and delicious, if you love tacos you should check them out if you’re not all taco’d out after February’s Taco Challenge.

To tie in this post with my regular content, here’s a custom Father’s Day Card I made last year…

It’s December 1st and time is getting tighter for making Christmas cards. My mantra this year has been “Less is Best” and I’ve simplified my process immensely.

For the most part I stick to a simple image paired with a coordinating sentiment on a one-layer card. Here are a few of my favourite clean and simple holiday designs which are in stock at Posie Row…

My market season has come to an end for 2015 after participating in the Quidi Vidi Plantation Open House this weekend past. I just love that venue and it’s inspiring to be surrounded by so many brilliant artisans.

This past year has been a wild ride and I couldn’t have asked for anything better, really. If I had to guess, I’d estimate that I’ve sold just over 2000 cards in 2015. I haven’t slowed down for one single minute and it has really paid off. Checking off my bucket-list one item at a time.

Last year around this time I decided that I might like to go back to school and I even applied online and paid the application fee. But when I saw the portfolio requirements I totally chickened out. After speaking with a few friends enrolled in the Graphic Design program at CONA, I am feeling a bit more encouraged to pursue that path… just not yet.

Maybe my path will choose itself, sometimes things have a strange way of working out… even when it doesn’t seem that way.

I am very grateful to Tara Bradbury for offering to write a full-page article on me and my cards for today’s newspaper. I had friends and family calling, texting and commenting all day long to offer congrats. Here is the article, which appeared in print and online:

Amongst all that hoopla, I recorded an interview with Jeremy Eaton of CBC today which will air on the radio sometime soon. The focus was on my Local Lyric Card project, which he also videotaped so it may even be on the web or TV. Eep! He came down to Posie Row to film me delivering the Lyric cards and even managed to capture someone buying one of my other cards. I snapped a blurry photo of the display on the cash desk (prime real estate!)

As you can see, the cards are all very simple – stamped images and/or words on heavy cotton cardstock. The envelopes I’ve been using were a gift from my old friend Allison Book (who has one of the loveliest instagram accounts on the go.)

After I left Posie Row, I headed down to Twisted Sisters Boutik to drop off a re-order of cards for their newest location, 179 Water Street. Fixed Coffee recently installed a mobile espresso cart at Twisted Sisters and lucky for me, TODAY they had a free beverage promotion! I ordered a very delicious machiatto made by Mr. Fixed It – Greg himself.

I didn’t set out to give a play-by-play of my wanderings, but in keeping with the spirit of shopping local – why not! I popped into YellowBelly for some delicious nachos, then hit up Rocket Bakery for some delicious macarons.

After that I popped into TVAL to see if they sold bath bombs. I just checked out their website and it’s GORGEOUS – I didn’t know they sold online until I inquired today during my visit. I may or may not have bought a little present for my friend who is addicted to bath bombs (Tval calls them Bath Treats if you’re inclined to check them out.)

Shopping local is so important, and it’s a shame that we’re losing another local treasure – Urchin Art Materials & Artifact who announced yesterday that they’re closing down. HOWEVER, if you check out The Paperie on Pippy Place, they have started carrying a lot of art materials and may even be able to special-order things for you. I worked there for 10 years, so that is where I bought 90% of my craft & art supplies – their prices beat Michael’s any day of the week! 🙂

Well, I’ll step off my soapbox now and go enjoy the free soap samples I was given at TVAL today, along with one of my bath treats. Here’s one more random picture for you…This is one of my favourite houses, on Monkstown Road in St. John’s. I took this photograph last fall and treated it in photoshop to get that pointillism effect. I’m thinking about printing and framing it, I love it so 🙂

After a quick trial run of selling cards during the last five days of Christmas at Posie Row, I was excited when they asked me to bring down a whole line of cards for all occasions. But first I had to create a whole line of cards!

In July I dropped off 165 cards (33 styles in total) all created during my #100cardsin100days challenge. There are cards for retirement, birthday, baby, thank you, wedding, just because, etc.

They’ve only been in stock for a week but here are Posie Row’s best sellers which I will be replenishing very soon…

I wasn’t sure what people would respond to, but after much thought (and a bit of self-doubt), I settled on some of the things I love – colour, puns, cute animals, and watercolor.

Every card is made by hand, so sometimes words are off-center and colours go outside the lines. Those tiny imperfections are part of the charm and that’s how you know it’s handmade, right?

A huge thanks to Posie Row for agreeing to sell my cards back in December, and again now. My friend Kate has been telling me to bring cards down there since we lived together in 2007 – I even put it on my ‘30 goals for 30‘ list five years ago. So grateful to finally cross another thing off my bucket list.

Christmas cards will be available at the September 26th ‘Etsy Handmade’ Market at Anna Templeton Centre. More exciting news about selling cards coming soon.

It would be great if we could all just learn to love and accept one another. Gay. Straight. Black. White. Hispanic. Muslim. Jew. Christian. Poor. Rich. Skinny. Obese. Short. Tall. Etc. Etc. Etc. Someday maybe.

I made this Magical card with an adorable Lawn Fawn unicorn stamp and one of my old A Muse sentiment stamps. Very simply gold embossed and coloured with Zig Wink of Stella brush pens. Because obviously unicorns should be glittery from head to hooves.

Well, I am 41 days in to my #50cardsin50days goal, and I’m proud to say that I haven’t missed a day yet! Here’s a recap of days 19 – 36.

Here is my favourite card from the bunch… kitties!

I also started playing along with #thedailymarker30day2 at the beginning of June. Kathy from The Daily Marker has put forth the challenge to colour something every day for the month of June, even if it’s just for 5 minutes. I have to say that the participants on Instagram are such a supportive and lovely group of people. Warms the heart.

Here’s some coloring I did with Clearly Besotted Orchids using Distress Inks and a waterbrush. The blue outline is Tombow markers blended out and the green outline is Distress Ink. You can’t see it but there’s a lovely coating of sparkly clear Wink of Stella brush pen over each orchid stem.

In other news, I started a Facebook page for my cards: http://facebook.com/driventoink. Since I’m participating in more craft fairs and starting an Etsy shop, I decided to go all the way. I’ve been selling cards to family and friends for years so why not take it to the next level. There will actually be a first-ever Etsy Handmade Market in St. John’s coming up on Saturday, September 26th at Anna Templeton Centre – more on that later!

This month I’ll be participating in the Fresh Fish Fair at Quidi Vidi Plantation on Saturday, June 20th! I have started a line of greeting cards that quote lyrics by local musicians and I’ve received a great response from every songwriter I’ve approached so far. Amazing. I’m excited to combine two of my biggest passions – local music & stationery! The OTHER exciting thing is that two shops downtown have agreed to carry these cards! Here’s a peek…-Flaming Rox Burn by Jody Richardson of Fur Packed Action.

That’s all my news for this week – it’s a beautiful day out there, time to go enjoy it 🙂

1. Stamp image on watercolor cardstock with Versamark and heat emboss with white powder
2. Paint with Koi Watercolor paints (the embossed part will resist the paint or markers) & allow to dry3. Carefully cut out image and adhere to card with dimensional foam adhesive/pop dots

I’ve applied to a couple of upcoming craft markets, one in June and one in September, so hopefully I’ll be out and about selling my cards. Do you think September is too early to sell Christmas cards? Hmm.

Here’s a recap of the first 18 cards I made for my #50cardsin50days challenge in reverse order…

My biggest challenge is Father’s Day cards – actually cards for dads, husbands and dudes in general. That’s my next goal and I’ve been looking at some interesting digital stamps that might just spark some ideas. Stay tuned!

If I succeed with my #50cardsin50days challenge I am considering doing another back-to-back… #100cardsin100days!? It could happen!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I desperately wanted tacos and margaritas today but didn’t have any ingredients, so instead I made some cards. I lean towards minimalism with design, so the single layer cards have been helping me get out of my creative rut.

These vintage A Muse stamps were all heat embossed with gold and then I used Wink of Stella brush pens to colour them. If you don’t own all of these colours – RUN to The Paperie (or your nearest local stamp store) and buy these. All of them. I even purchased an extra blue Wink of Stella and added a few drops of light green to create TEAL.

I made two more floral cards today (why not?) …

The flower (Memory Box) on the first card was die-cut twice, once with watercolor paper and again with black paper. I painted the first flower all pink and then paper pieced the petals back into the black outline. The second card has just the pink watercolor outline.

I’ll be back very soon with more to share – if there’s anything you would like to see, just leave a comment 🙂

I think I’ve got my mojo back… I’ve made about 15 cards in the last three days but I’m only going to share a few of them today 🙂

First is a card I’m submitting to this week’s Simon Says Wednesday Challenge, “Anything Goes”. I had planned to make this card for Mother’s Day…

I turned this into a sympathy card because it seemed appropriate. Floral stamp is from Clearly Besotted ‘Thinking of You’ set, and the sentiment is from My Favourite Things ‘Wildflowers’ set. I haven’t really mastered colouring with Copics but I gave it my best effort.

I have some really supportive friends who have been buying my cards since 2005 and with Mother’s Day coming up I’ve been working on a variety of different designs, both paper crafted and digital. More floral simplicity…

Dy embossed with a heat embossed gold sentiment above.

Lastly, here is a digital card I made (I photoshopped it onto a real card for dimension so sadly it looks a bit crooked but it’s straight in real life, I promise).

It was encouraging to know that people still read this old blog, so I will make an effort to continue updating – thank you for checking in, I love hearing from you! ♥

I finally have my own craft room (I’m house-sitting for six months) but sadly I’ve been experiencing a creative drought. Possibly burned out after making over 300 handmade holiday cards in November and December.

To give myself a little push, I’ve decided to make at least one card a day and post them on instagram for the next 50 days – #50cardsin50days. I’m sure I’ll probably have some days where I make 3 cards, and others where I make none. Here is the result of Day 1…

I’ve been experimenting with photoshop and I redesigned my blog header using some graphics that I fell in love with. I’ve even created a few digital cards recently, here is a pretty little card I made in five minutes tonight…

I wonder if anyone reads this anymore? Comment to say hello, if you’re out there 🙂